1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic composite component such as an RC composite component having a resistor element, and more particularly, it relates to an improvement for reducing variation in resistance values of resistor elements between the obtained components.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 6 is a plan view showing a typical example of a conventional RC composite component. Such an RC composite component has a capacitor element and a resistor element, which are connected in parallel with each other.
The capacitor element comprises, e.g., a laminated ceramic capacitor chip, and its body 1 is provided with a pair of terminal electrodes 2 and 3 on both end surfaces thereof. These terminal electrodes 2 and 3 are formed by coating metal paste on both end portions of the body 1 or dipping both end portions of the body 1 in a metal paste bath to adhere the metal paste to both end portions of the body 1 and baking the same.
A resistor film 4 for serving as a resistor element is provided on the surface of the body 1. The resistor film 4 is formed by preparing a film of resistance paste through screen printing, intaglio printing, relief printing or the like and baking the same. The resistor film 4 is adapted to partially cover the pair of terminal electrodes 2 and 3, whereby the same is electrically connected to the pair of terminal electrodes 2 and 3.
The resistance value provided by the resistor film 4 of the composite component as shown in FIG. 6 is determined by the distance A between respective inner edges of the pair of terminal electrodes 2 and 3. However, the distance A cannot be easily determined in design, since the terminal electrodes 2 and 3 are formed by application of metal paste as hereinabove described, and hence it is difficult to constantly locate the inner edges thereof in position with good reproducibility. Further, the distance A between the inner edges of the pair of terminal electrodes 2 and 3 may be varied with variation in size of the body 1.
Therefore, even if such resistor films 4 are designed to be in uniform thickness, resistance values drawn out between respective pairs of terminal electrodes 2 and 3 are varied in the obtained components, which increases the fraction of the components that are defective.
While trimming is generally performed with a laser or the like to adjust the resistance values, such a trimming step requires a long time when the resistance values are extremely varied as hereinabove described.
Further, when the resistor film 4 is trimmed by laser, the surface part of the body 1, being just under the part removed by the trimming, may be damaged to deteriorate the quality of the capacitor element, for example.